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    "id": 571385,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/571385/?format=api",
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    "content": "I hope that the Select Committee – as it will be looking at the state of county headquarters and county assemblies – will extend a little bit and make certain recommendations that could guide our governors and people who run devolved units of government so that they do not become too extravagant at the expense of other immediate priorities in our counties. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the root cause of some of the problems we witness, probably, could be what we call the National Government Coordination Act. The Constitution said that the provincial administration would need to be realigned to be consistent with the new Constitution. However, we went ahead and came up with the National Government Coordination Act which set up structures that were parallel to the structures that were set up by the County Government Act. What has happened is that in every county, you have the governor on one side and the county commissioner on another. These are two bulls in the same kraal but you will find them fighting whenever there is a state event, a national day or whenever people are looking for offices. You will find them fighting for supremacy. When you move to the constituency, you will find that the governor has appointed a sub-county administrator and the national Government also has a sub-county administrator. When you go to the ward, you will find two animals with the same name but representing different arms of the government. When you go to the village, you will find the same thing. There is duplicity of structures and offices in this country. That is why you will find, in certain counties, enough buildings and premises that can host the structures of a county government but have been taken up by representatives of the national Government. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the office of my Governor in Homa Bay County is a very cramped space. The Office of the County Commissioner for the same County is a very humongous, liberally spaced and furnished. We need to go back and ask ourselves whether the provincial administration was properly realigned and whether the structures that we set up are helping this nation. I visited my County Commissioner. I wanted to discuss with him certain issues relating to disaster management. He was aware of the disastrous scenarios. However, he had absolutely no ability to respond to them. I asked myself; why then do we have a county commissioner at the local level who cannot respond to disasters? I asked my County Commissioner about cash transfer programmes because that is also a national Government initiative but he could not give me a ready answer. I asked him about Uwezo Fund but he told me to talk to the MPs concerning that. I asked him about insecurity but he asked to set an appointment with the police commanders. I asked about roads and I was referred to either the County Governor or Members of Parliament (MPs). I asked about other things relating to education – both primary and secondary education – and I was told that it was being handled by MPs through the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF). The question then is, why do we need to have parallel structures when a lot of the things they purport to do are either being done by MPs or are still being done by the The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}